Standing Inside the Fire
Pastor Mathew Magera – 8/2/15 – Sermon 114
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
It's a normal afternoon,
everyone is doing their work, everything is going fine. Then the music is
played and the people around you begin to stop their work, get on their knees
and worship the golden statue in the center of town. It's not even a question of
whether or not you should or shouldn't, you just know what it is you are
supposed to do and you do it.
It wouldn't be far-fetched
to see this as a daily occurrence in the land of Babylon in our story today.
After the king erected a golden image and demanded that at the sound of music
everyone would bow and worship it sooner or later it would become second nature
to do it. This is a basic psychological understanding of classical
conditioning. Made famous by Ivan Pavlov, the theory shows us that when presented
with a stimulus one can produce a desired response. You may know with Pavlov,
he used dogs for a very well-known experiment. He would provide his dogs with
food and ring a bell. Constantly he would do this for days until he reached a
point that he could ring a bell and the dogs would salivate. Nowhere could the
dogs possibly know that they would be fed but because they associate the bell
with eating, their brains tell them the sound of the bell will lead to food.
Let's stop right here and
I'll show you what I mean. The Lord be with you... Let us pray. Wait, let's
not. This is what I mean. You see how conditioned we are as Lutherans to
automatically respond to something with words and with the bowing of heads?
Think about how conditioned we are in other things. How many of our life
choices are conditioned bad choices? Probably more than we think. Let's take
that even further. Let's talk about the predictability of those choices. The
more we do it, the more ritualistic it becomes. What would it take to change
one of those choices? What kind of risk would we be taking? The point of this
story today is to take a look at what can happen when we stand up for our faith
in God. While uplifting in our hearts, it is not always bringing us what we
want.
In Babylon today as three
Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego decide to remain faithful to the one true
God, they also are disobeying a royal command. Well, one could hope that all
would go better for these three because of their devout faith but such is not
true for these three. God is capable of anything imaginable but we are still
sinners in a sinful world governed by nature that surrounds us. If you get
drunk and drive off the road, it's going to put you in the hospital whether you
are a devout Christian or not. Just because we have a deep faith in God does
not mean that we are immune from the most horrible of diseases. While it would
be nice for this to be true, we are still susceptible to all that the world
throws at us.
Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego were not conditioned to worship the idol the king set up and therefore
refused to obey which did not cause them to be lifted up and praised for their
faith. In the exact opposite, their lives were in jeopardy because of their
faith. Babylon, the great city, easily represents the entire world because of
its influence and power and when these three Jews disobey, they are going
against the grain of the world. And going against the grain, can potentially be
quite painful. So, what can we learn from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
God Is Bigger
Than The World
It's hard to see this, no
almost impossible to see this when we are surrounded by things we can see,
taste and touch. God is not as visible as murder. God is not as visible as
racism. God is not as visible as poverty. God is not as visible as war or
persecution or temptation. God is not as visible as these aspects of the world
but He is bigger.
When Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego were told to serve the king’s gods and worship the king's idol they
said to him the words in verses 16 and 17, "King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not
need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the
blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it and he will
delivery us from Your Majesty's hand." To these three Jews, God is bigger
than the world. To say anything is bigger than Babylon is dangerous because Babylon
is known to be a city that is full of itself. But, what I really like about
what they say to the king is that they don't need to defend themselves to him.
They don't have to make a case, they simply say, we're not going to worship
your idol and we're not going to serve your gods, end of story. Even if Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego were to defend themselves, it would be pointless to talk
about the greatness of God because it seems they knew it wouldn't do an ounce
of good to defend themselves. Babylon is stuck in its ways. In our world,
nothing it seems is more powerful than what we see on TV all the time as I just
referenced. Murders, suicides, theft, rape, poverty, sickness, death, war and
racism. Where’s the power in the world? Right there. If it gets the attention,
it has the power. Nothing seems more powerful than all of this, but God is
bigger than all of it. What King Nebuchadnezzar doesn't know but will soon
discover is that there is a greater power in the world. God is greater. God is
bigger than the world and that means God is bigger than anything you’ll see on
the evening news.
We Are Not
Alone In The Fire
At some point in our lives,
we might find ourselves in the midst of what we might call the fire. It could
be persecution to us a Christians, it could come in the loss of a family
member, or a difficult medical diagnosis. But at some point, we could find
ourselves in the fire.
As I was writing this
sermon, I was reminded of a song by Garth Brooks that talks about the fires of
life. He sings, "Life is not tried, it's merely survived when you're
standing outside the fire." While not exactly theologically tuned, those
words tell us even if we are safe outside the fire, we're just surviving, but
in the fire, everything is put to the test. We may not ever have the unfortunate
occurrence of being sentenced to death by fiery furnace, but we might still
feel like we are getting burned. But, since with this story Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego are not alone, we are also not alone. We are not alone in the
fire. We will be tested. Our bodies may be put to their limits, our emotions
tried. We may be surrounded by persecution for our faith, disease, bad
relationships, loss of a job, loss of family members, financial crises,
murderers and adulterers and we may suffer at their hands, but we are not alone
in that fire. Even when we feel we have nothing left, we are not alone in the
fire.
This also prepares us for
burns. Our sadness and grief may overcome us, our health and stamina may leave
us, but when our bodies break as a result, we receive the perfectly broken body
of Christ. When we feel broken within, we remember the breaking of Christ's
body on the cross, the same body that was broken in the upper room when Jesus
shared bread and wine in his last supper. Christ suffered through the fire so
that we would not be consumed by it. We are not alone in the fire. We're
standing inside the fire but we are not afraid because Christ is there. We're
standing inside the fire and even if our bodies are broken to the point of
death, we know God's promise that through Christ we will be made whole. If you
find yourself fin the fire, cling to Christ who is there with you. We are most
definitely not alone in the fire.
Let Jesus Be
Seen In You
What was the turning point
in this story? Everything in this story changed because Nebuchadnezzar saw four
figures in the fiery furnace. He sent in three, but there were four that stood
among the flames. He could also see they were unbound and unharmed by the fire.
Just to show that the furnace was hot enough to complete the task it was hereby
prepared for, the soldiers that had thrown them into the furnace were killed just
by the heat of it all. But, Nebuchadnezzar saw four figures and that is the
turning point in the story. He saw something differently than he had seen
before. He found worth in the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who could
save them in such a way.
God showed himself in the
unharmed bodies of those three men. God showed himself in the hair on them that
was not even singed. God showed himself in their clothes that were not scorched.
God showed himself in their unburnt smell. I can't even cook dinner on the grill or make
a campfire without smelling like smoke at the end of it and here there was no
scent of fire among them, and the lack of such a scent meant an overpowering
aroma of God in that place. Strange question, but, do you smell like God? Do
you live in such a way that people might say you smell like God? Okay, maybe
not literally, but king Nebuchadnezzar saw clean, unburned and decent smelling
men being protected by a fourth figure. Can others see Christ in your life? Would
someone watch you and be amazed of the things you could do or say and find the
only explanation to be that Jesus is with you?
As this is the turning point
in the story today, let's mark the turning point in our stories by letting
Jesus be seen in each of us. I've mentioned this before but we are in an age
that people who are seeking God will not necessarily come to church. But, that
can't stop us from bringing church to them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
brought God to the land of Babylon, to King Nebuchadnezzar by his seeing God
present in the lives of these three men who would not bow down to other gods.
Nebuchadnezzar was changed not because he sought God himself, but because God
came to him when he saw God in someone else. We can be like Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego in our lives. In good times and in the fire, letting Jesus be seen
in us can open up the hearts of others who do not know this amazing love that
we have in Christ Jesus. Let Jesus be seen in you.
* * *
Having an open and honest faith
and going against the grain of the world is not easy. Nobody is ready for
persecution. Nobody is ready to experience grief, sorrow, and pain. I know we
are not always ready for the fire. We don't like it. It's painful, it really
is. You can probably think of a time you went through a fire in your life and
how devastating it can be. You might even be in the fire right now. But, you are
protected. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed God was bigger than the
world. They would not bow down and worship the gods and idols of the community.
They believed God would deliver them from the hands of the king and God did.
Even if they had died as a result of the fiery furnace, they were not alone in
that furnace, they were not alone in the fire. God was with them. And perhaps
the only reason they were called out of the fire is because the king saw God in
their lives, something most unexpected and unanticipated. Nebuchadnezzar saw
God in the fire and brought them out. It seemed as if he had changed and become
a new man. The Bible says the king announced, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They
trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their
lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God." There
was new life growing in the king. May God give you the ability to lean on Jesus
when you are in the fire, to know that he always with you and will never leave
you, and may you therefore be an example of Christ in the world that He may be
seen by others, made visible by your growing faith in Him. To God be the glory,
now and always. Amen.